Perhaps I was right to wait until 2021 to play properly this game that came out in 2017: the game received a number of updates until 2020 that fixed, among other things, a whole lot of typos and awkward sentences I remember reading back in 2018 when I only bothered playing Oscar’s route and liveblogged it on Tumblr. While a number typos still remain, the overall reading experience was much more satisfying this time around.

Beyond Eden is an adult BL game by the Korean circle Studio Pie Plus. It is a revenge story set in the Victorian era where you wear the shoes of Alex Wake, a businessman with an agenda who makes a trip to the countryside and into the house of the Edenics, where he and his sister once lived. He is dead set on causing their downfall –in all sorts of cruel and creative ways.

Characters

Alex Wake

A handsome, cunning and charismatic young man who spent part of his childhood with the Edenics. He’s visiting them once more to avenge his late sister, who he loved dearly.

He doesn’t hide his bisexuality and knows no shame, yet can be surprisingly dense when it comes to love.

Oscar Edenic

Eldest son of William Edenic, Oscar is an uptight and responsible man who is willing to do anything to protect his family, which is something Alex is quick to take advantage of.

He’s rightfully wary of Alex upon his arrival.

Joshua Edenic

William Edenic’s least favoured son, Joshua is quiet and more perceptive than his older brother. An “accident” left him disabled and he needs a cane to walk.

Alex doesn’t bear a grudge against him, but he’s curious how far Joshua can be pushed until he snaps.

Jeremy Edenic

The youngest and most loved of the Edenics. Jeremy is a sweet and innocent 13 years old boy who bears a strong resemblance to Alex’s dead sister.

Unlike the 5 other routes, Jeremy’s is non-romantic and safe for work. Beyond Eden: Dear Edward takes place after his good ending.

Laurence de Lafayette

Alex’s friend from his university years, Laurence is a cheerful and wise Frenchman who insisted on accompanying Alex on his trip to the English countryside.

He’s not privy to Alex’s revenge plans. Alex thinks Laurence only likes women. The fool.

Morris Bell

The Edenics’ family doctor and an old friend of the Baron’s. Morris has a gentle personality and used to care for Alex and his sister.

Alex only has good wishes for the doctor, but he won’t be so kind should Morris stand in his way.

Theodore Burton

Son of a maid, Theodore used to be the Edenic brothers’ playmate and thanks to the Baron, received education and rose to the rank of butler.

Cunning and diligent, he seems to hold deep respect towards Alex. Maybe a little too deep, actually.

Edward Edenic

Third son of William Edenic. Edward hates his father, yet his impulsive personality and appeal for hunting and gambling make Edward reassemble him the most in terms of personality.

He immediately develops a crush for Alex, which sadly never goes requited unless you play his own game, Beyond Eden: Dear Edward.

William Edenic

The Baron Edenic and the biggest object of Alex’ hatred. He used to have an intimate relationship with Alex’s sister Elisabeth.

He appears to have mellowed out since her death and only seems to care for his youngest son, Jeremy.

Elisabeth Wake

Alex’s beloved older sister who haunts him and, in his mind, begs for revenge. Elisabeth was a sweet and caring young woman, as well as Jeremy’s biological mother.

She had her own shares of secrets that even Alex himself wasn’t aware of.

Simple, but efficient

Beyond Eden uses Ren’py, a visual novel engine that’s quite popular with Western developers. They don’t do anything particularly flashy with it, but a few of the game’s features add just a little more to the player’s entertainment or immersion during some scene.

The most prominent one is the “Interactive mode”, which appears in several scenes. By hovering over certain elements of an image, you can get a description and sometimes some additional lines of voice acting from the characters. For me the most memorable use of it is a certain scene in Oscar’s route, when, upon entering Interactive Mode, you, the player, are actively participating in making the eldest Edenic son uncomfortable by gazing at his body inappropriate ways –even though he’s fully clothed.

Another simple but neat little trick you may encounter during your playthrough is choices in the shape of two items or characters you can click rather than text choices.

All in all, these little tricks are just fluff that could have instead been replaced with several more lines of writing or two plain text choices. They are still nice little touches that show how much love PiePlus poured into Beyond Eden.

You’re the villain

In Beyond Eden, finding your way is a rather easy affair. The choices are obvious enough that you know what to pick to get on a certain character’s path, and once Alex has chosen a victim to pick on, figuring out which choices are “good” or “bad” usually boil down to evil you want Alex to be: should he drive the Edenic brother further into the mess they already are in, or should he find himself helping them? Does he think Morris is a good man or a pitiful man?

Alex will top in a route, bottom in another and let you choose in a couple ones as well. One route contains only what you’d consider bad endings, another has “neutral” endings, and yet another is apparently set leaving things open to interpretation and have no proper ending.

Some characters get completely overwhelmed by Alex’s scheming and blackmail, while others will try to one-up him or try not to enter his game at all. As such, you never know where a path will take you, or what kind of information you will glean from it, either about the character’s route in question, Alex himself, or the overarching mystery behind Elisabeth’s death.

As the main driving force behind the majority of the conflicts and incidents happening in the Edenic’s domain and through Alex’ actions and mode of reasoning, you, the player, are by extension given far more power than if you were to only react to some Big Bad’s scheme. In Beyond Eden, you are the Big Bad and you are invited to squeeze Alex’ villain potential for what it’s worth.

If I were to voice one complaint about Beyond Eden’s writing, it would be that at times, the characters’ actions or characterization are a bit too convenient and lose some of their credibility. Some characters are a bit too easy to forgive, or suddenly become more stupid or insensitive than usual to further Alex’ scheme. Edward especially falls victim to this, and he even comments on it during a bonus scene once you’ve completed every endings. This is the biggest flaw of Beyond Eden, but thankfully doesn’t happen in all the routes.

The best Boy

If I were to choose which character entertained me the most in Beyond Eden, I would choose Alex without hesitation. However the award for the best boy goes to Joshua.

I always had a weak spot for (seemingly) emotionless characters who had wounds to hide and many will probably relate to Joshua’s role as the unfavorite, unnoticed child. In his route, Joshua displays a surprising amount of resourcefulness. He somehow manages to make the best out of the situations Alex put him through while having to navigate his disability and how it affected his dreams, his future careers and others’ perception of him. He also happens to -openly- enjoy Alex’s physical advances and the last couple CGs of his route made my heart melt.

A special mention goes to Laurence, and more specifically Laurence’s voice actor, Nam Doh-hyeong. I don’t know how he does it, but that man moans in a certain sex scene like he prepared his whole life to this moment and the result is absolutely glorious and beats anything I heard in any language. See for yourself:

Long story short

Plot: 8/10
Prose: 8/10
Art: 8/10
Music: 7/10
Overall rating: 8/10

If you are looking for something heartwarming and know you wouldn’t enjoy Alex’ dubious morals and the many dubiously consensual sex scenes present in the game, this game is not for you. As for me, the varied content and scenarios provided in each route, complete with the power you are given over the fate of the House of Edenic made Beyond Eden one of the better BL game experience I had thus far.

The much-awaited official English version of DRAMAtical Murder has been released by JAST USA almost a month ago. Curious of what the new translation will bring to the game -which I played, like many, back in 2013 with the fan-translation-, I got myself a copy and went back in the shoes of BL game community’s most famous, blue-haired protagonist.

DRAMAtical Murder is the story of Aoba Seragaki, a man who grew up in the fictional island of Midorijima where people used to live in harmony with nature until the Toue corporation bought off most of the territory to build a gigantic amusement resort only accessible to the wealthy. The Old District, the one place that resists Toue’s influence is now rife with police corruption and gang wars, and the virtual battle game Rhyme is taking its foot amongst the youth with some becoming addicted. Aoba wants none of that and just wishes for a simple life until strange events and even stranger people gather around him. Aoba then has no choice but to fight for those he holds dear while keeping the sanity of his chosen partner and his own in check.

Aoba Seragaki

A 23 years old man who lived all his life in Midorijima.

Aoba was raised by his grandmother into a caring and compassionate individual, which will prove to be both his strength and his downfall in the many conflicts he gets dragged in.

Ren

Aoba’s closest companion. Ren is an old allmate model with a calm and mature demeanor that assists Aoba and looks out for his physical and mental health.

Inside the virtual battlefield of Rhyme, Ren takes on a human form and fights for Aoba.

Koujaku

Aoba’s childhood friend and best bro, Koujaku is a hairdresser who leads a small Rib gang called Beni-Shigure.

His friendly attitude and womanizing tendencies hide some deep wounds and heavy secrets he would rather keep hidden from those he loves.

Noiz

A standoffish young man with a bratty attitude who meets Aoba by forcing him into a Rhyme fight.

Noiz is part of the Rhyme team Ruff Rabbits and uses his hacking skills to gather and sell information.

His trust issues are a source of conflict with Aoba.

Mink

A no-bullshit man with an imposing presence who leads an Rib team of ex-convicts called Scratch.

Minks sees Aoba and his own self as a means to an end to take down Toue, which he harbors a deep grudge against. As a result, his relationship with Aoba is quite complicated.

Clear

Clear is a strange individual who literally crashes into Aoba’s life, calls him “master” and claims to have heard his voice from miles away.

His strange and cheerful antics provide comic relief whenever he is around but make to mistake: he’s stronger than he looks and his route is funny until it’s not.

Tae

Aoba’s grandmother who pretty much raised him instead of his parents. She’s a tough woman who used to be a neuroscientist for Toue’s company.

Even when she’s not here, she’s a strong presence in Aoba’s life and provides him medication for his headaches.

Mizuki

Another close friend of Aoba’s, Mizuki is the proud leader of Dry Juice, the largest Ribster gang in Midorijima which he sees as his own family.

He hates Rhyme as its growing popularity is detrimental to Rib. Despite being asked multiple times, Aoba always refused to join Dry Juice.

Virus and Trip

A duo of carefree yakuza men who have known Aoba for a long time and call themselves his “fans” for some reason.

They have contact with the police and manifest themselves in the strangest times. Despite their look, their will vehemently deny being twins.

Tatsuo Toue

The Big Bad, the man who own the gigantic amusement facility called Platinum Jail, which overtakes most of the Midorijima island.

Toue sees life as a game that he is currently winning and he would like to see how far he can go before fate stops him.

Designed for immersion

Playing DMMd, you would be forgiven if you had the feeling you weren’t playing a visual novel but good old J-RPG. This is by design: special effects, use of 3D for décor, video overlays for some animated sequences and and other technical prowesses are part of Nitroplus’ trademark. These effects hold up well in 2021 and remain unmatched in the BL category.

For example, there are parts where you’ll hear a vibration that slowly gets louder. This isn’t just for atmosphere. Since DMMd is a first-person game, we wanted you to feel what Aoba is feeling, the growing terror of having something inside your head.

Liner Notes of Akkyun, staging director of DMMd, translated by JAST USA

This, I guess, makes DMMd a good starter visual novel for people who are new to the genre and won’t feel too lost at the lack of choice or whatever people consider “not a video game”. Overall, playing DMMd feels good.

While playing it again after several years, I often found myself wondering “would I be able to reproduce that in the Ren’py engine?” the answer was often “yes, but it will be a slow, stuttering mess”. Better luck with Unity or Unreal engine, for C++ and C# (used if I recall correctly for the in-house Nitro engine) languages are faster than Python. With that said, if you are a game developer yourself, don’t feel too bad: at the time of DMMd’s release, Nitro+ already had 10 years of experience and dozens of games under its belt, as well as a large team of professionals, art assistants and an art director. You just can’t compare yourself to them.

Cyberpunk with (lots of) feelings

DRAMAtical Murder doesn’t brag about its cyberpunk-ness. Actually, I think the term was only brought up recently by its English publisher JAST Blue, possibly to hop on on the controversies brought up by the release of Cyberpunk 2077 and how this game doesn’t live up to its own name.

And yet in DMMd, cyberpunk is everywhere. It’s in the lovingly detailed backgrounds of the Old District, ravaged by a megacorporation but populated with all kinds of people who look out for each other and just want to live their life, in sharp contrast with the cold, sterile luxury of Platinum Jail that’s filled with rich people who believes themselves to be the “chosen ones”. It’s in the troubled and painful past of its cast, filled with betrayal, abandonment, scientific malpractices and loss of loved ones, who need to learn or relearn the concept of being loved and finding that life may be worth living. It’s in Aoba’s indignation when he sees Toue on a TV spreading kind words of compassion with a benevolent smile while he and his company perform literal crimes against humanity. It’s also in the robots, virtual fights and fancy technology, but those are just fluff.

You get the idea: behind its crisp and colorful visual with catchy electronic music that inspired many memes, DRAMAtical Murder is a story about how love, self-acceptance and ultimately accepting and making peace with your past is stronger than any obstacle that comes your way. A good example of this is how in each route, Aoba must come in terms with how his power, associated with destruction, can be used to “destroy” the chains the bind his love interest to his past and traumas so he can move on and complete his quest.

Sticking to the formula

DMMd’s story structure doesn’t change much, if at all throughout its 5 routes. The “common route”, which goes from the beginning of the game to right before Aoba sets route to Platinum Jail, roughly takes half of your average playthrough(~5h?), while the love interest’s route takes the other half or a bit less. By the time you get midway through your second game, which is likely to be Noiz’s route if you go by the recommended playing order, you have most of the story patterns figured out and know the next part will play out.

The story bends itself backward and goes through a lot of convenient shortcuts so that all the routes get an equivalent script length, character development, sex/romantic scenes and ending, with some minor irregularities. The game takes special care in not mentioning love interests outside of their own route except the last one, as if their intervention would disrupt the balance and cause a major game crash. Aoba’s actions influence his love interest for the most part, while the overarching plot resolves itself with a Deus Ex Machina –an outside force neither he nor the player has any control of. The only route lacking such feature is Mink’s, which is also the longest and the least romance-focused.

With that said, the story that IS there remains solid on the most part and you’re kept on your toes throughout each route, with each character coming with his own secrets, emotional baggage and set of challenges for Aoba. When put side by side, they give you a better look at the universe Aoba lives in and the various ways the Toue corporation tries to screw everyone over. And so, you are never stuck with a sense of repetitiveness for too long.

The best boy

This time the best boy award goes to Clear! While all of Aoba’s potential suitors have interesting story arcs as well as their emotional or cute moments, Clear’s route provides a wide range of emotions. There is not much I can say without going into spoiler territory, but simply put, he starts out as comic relief and his silliness gives you a few good chuckles until about halfway through his storyline, then proceeds to punch you repeatedly in the guts in the second half until you end his route as crying mess.

A special mention goes to his Bad End, which is my favourite Bad End in any game ever in how deliciously twisted it is. Its accompanying song “Immer Sie”, sure by Ito Kanako is particularly memorable and playlist-worthy.

The DRAMAtical Murder anime doesn’t come close to the quality of the game, but one good thing it brought us is Clear’s Jellyfish song, which I took some time to find so it doesn’t spoil his face. You’re welcome.

On DRAMAtical Murder’s Localization

The JAST localization brought some new features that weren’t present in the fan translation and old game build:

• subtitles for dialogues occurring outside the textbox
• the old version ran on 1280 x 720 px. You can now pick several options up to 1920 x 1080 px.
• the sex scenes are uncensored with what I assume were Honyarara’s illustrations before mosaics were applied, so the dicks actually look like dicks
• translated Liner Notes from the N+C staff that provide impressions and inside stories regarding the game’s creation and marketing
• the presence of italics in the text to emphasize certain words, which was impossible to do in the old version.
• in the fan-translation, Aoba’s experience with men was ambiguous, this is now clarified in the JAST version

I picked up quite a few typos while playing. Didn’t count but it must be around 20 of them. JAST announced that they will be fixed in an update.

My memories of the old unofficial translation that came out in 2013 are blurry, but one thing I’m sure of is that barring ellipses every single line has been translated differently in the JAST version. “Westernized” isn’t the word I’d use to describe the difference, but it’s not too far from the truth: there is more swearing, Aoba and Koujaku are now bros, his workplace Heibon is now Hum-Drum Junk, Clear uses “Aoba” instead of “Aoba-san” and at some point Ren makes a pun, but beyond that, the new translation puts a great emphasis on Aoba’s perceptiveness and ability to understand the actions and fears of those around him. This is apparent in every route, but especially Mink’s where you simply cannot enjoy his storyline without understanding what’s going on and his motivations behind his actions.

Long Story Short

Plot: 7.5/10
Prose: 9/10 (-1 for the typos)
Art: 10/10
Music: 10/10
Immer Sie-on: 12/10
Overall rating: 9/10

DRAMAtical Murder’s plot runs so all its character arcs can soar, consistently, across the board. Its adherence to a formula is what DMMd down a few places in my list of favourite games behind Togainu no Chi and Hashihime of the Old Book Town.

Yet DRAMAtical Murder remains one of my best BL game experiences and even if you already played the game before, I warmly suggest you give its shiny new localization a chance, for JAST’s translation which was done with tender, loving care by a team of people who are passionate about BL games, flows better and makes DRAMAtical Murder’s world shine all the brighter.

Useful links

• Get DRAMAtical Murder from Jast USA
• Get the game from Steam + its uncensor patch
• Order the physical version + digital artbook from J-List
• JAST BLUE official Twitter
• Nitro+Chiral official website

My 2021 new year resolution was “playing and reviewing more Japanese games” and so I finally got around to play Adelta’s Hashihime of the Old Book Town, officially released in 2019 by Mangagamer and translated by frillyfujoshi.

Hashihime is a very long BL game, perhaps the longest BL game localization thus far whose length compares to Lamento, with at least 30 hours needed to read all the routes. Set in Japan, 1922, it tells the story of Tamamori, a man who came to Tokyo with two of his childhood friends in order to attend the Imperial University, failed the entrance exam, and is now working in “Umebachidou”, a second-hand bookshop where the owner never shows his face but grants Tamamori a free room and some money in exchange for his work. He enjoys his life while leeching off those around him until strange events keep piling up and one of his friend is found dead in a river. Even stranger: he finds that he can repeat these same 3 rainy days over and over again and is now determined to save his friends from the disasters awaiting them.

Characters

Tamamori

The protagonist, Tamamori prides himself as a writer of over-the-top stories. He’s aware he is taking advantage of his friends and the shopkeeper, but he has no will to change his routine, yet he yearns for a “true friendship”. Since he was a child, he had hallucinations of strange creatures born out of his stories who talk to him.

Kawase

A handsome but sadistic medical student and childood friend of Tamamori’s, who he constantly berates for being dirty and writing “shit stories”. He lives alone in a western-style mansion owned by a man who adopted him… yet said man is nowhere to be found, which makes a certain group of children suspect that Kawase killed him.

Minakami

Mild-mannered and kind-hearted, Minakami is the complete opposite of Kawase and a fan of Tamamori’s stories. He’s a literary student and an avid reader who can remember every word of the books he read. He is the catalyst that causes Tamamori to discover his time-traveling ability and try to save him. I’d say he’s the closest thing to “sane” the main cast has to offer.

Hanazawa

Tamamori’s third childhood friend who he hasn’t seen in 8 years after he left to join the military academy, Hanazawa is a true Japanese man who goes straight to the point and will stop at nothing to achieve what he thinks is right “for the country”. He enjoyed Tamamori’s stories and cultivates an unlikely yet close friendship with…

Hikawa a.k.a “Professor”

Nobody in Hashihime is sane, but Professor is a particular brand of crazy and horny. He’s been a regular customer at Tamamori’s bookshop since the latter started working here, treats his stories like they’re the Holy Grail and gifts him with a tin goldfish watering can as a sign of friendship. Tamamori is creeped out by his antics, but is quick to take advantage of Professor’s adoration.

Man in the Noh Mask

A mysterious individual who lives in the basement under Tamamori’s bookshop. The man in the Noh mask appears at the strangest times and in the strangest places to kill anyone who is in the vicinity of Tamamori, but not Tamamori himself. He’s a giant man with incredible strength who doesn’t talk much and whose motives are unknown.

Meiko

A waitress in Tamamori and Kawase’s favourite cafe with a witty attitude who likes to tease Tamamori and strangely knows a lot about him. Meiko is head over heels for Kawase, whose demeaning and cold treatment only fuels her admiration, which Tamamori exploits to get free food in exchange for information.

Haruhiko and the Frog Man

Two of Tamamori’s hallucinations who come from Tamamori’s latest manuscript. They have a mind of their own and appear around Tamamori whether he wants it or not. Haruhiko is pragmatic and offers Tamamori his wisdom while criticizing his attitude, while the Frog Man behaves and talks like a child yet tries to help in his own way in hope Tamamori will release his story to the world.

Hitotsurugi and Sazan

Professor’s twin maids who have been working for his household since they were 14. They are actually 74 years old, but were made young again thanks to Professor’s advanced technology and surgery. Hitotsurugi is the older and more serious of the two while Sazan is a klutz who always get people’s names wrong. They are both trained in martial arts and won’t hesitate to intimidate, beat or kill anyone who they perceive as a threat to their master.

The Irregulars Regiment

A group of orphaned children who always look out for each other and are investigating the disappearance of Ikeda, the man who adopted Kawase, because one of their members was very close to him. They call each other with codenames taken from French numbers: Un, Deux, Trois, Quatre, Cinq.

What the heck, but also, what the heck?

Your first playthrough of Hashihime will be choiceless, and as you get your first ending and start a new game, new choices will unlock, one by one, for each route so you play them in the order dictated by the game. Despite its sheer length, Hashihime only has 5 endings to go with the 5 routes, which makes each of them but especially the common route very, very bulky, which, while it doesn’t bother me, may put off some players who like having choice in the action of the protagonist and into how the story ends up.

Without going too much into spoiler territory, none of the characters of Hashihime are what they seem when they first get introduced, and the better part of Tamamori’s love interests seem to be, in a way or another, neck-deep into war crimes and violating the not-yet-written Geneva Convention. Everyone, including Tamamori himself, is deeply flawed and has multiple skeletons in their closets that are threatening to spill out any time and the more Tamamori jumps into the next world 3 days prior, the more he’s exposed to ugly truths and questioning his own relationship with those around him.

Speaking of time travel, Hashihime raises some rather interesting questions: what happens to the worlds you leave behind when jumping into another? If you kill a person and then go back to the past where that person is still alive, you may have un-done their death but it doesn’t change the fact that you killed someone. What if you teleport far into the past and forever alter the reality you used to live in? Each route gives us a new perspective into the use of time travel, and also each route gets crazier than the last.

The game makes a lot of literary references, mostly of Japanese classics with Kyuusaku Yumeno’s works and in particular Dogra Magra being mentioned many times throughout the story. There are also mentions of Western works and figures like Freud or Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables. Needless to say, the vast majority of them went completely over my head because I am completely unfamiliar with Japanese literature but present more as “knowledge bonus” than being essential to the understanding of the story and the enjoyment of the game. This is partly helped by the in-game dictionary that gives you a brief descriptions of novel or references you may be unfamiliar with.

Another aspect I enjoyed about the game is its side characters, most of which get their own storyline that gets explored in some of the routes. In particular, Meiko and her mother ‘The Madam’ stand out as having several arcs of their own that explore the theme of loving men and being a trans woman in the Taisho era. The Madam has a deep voice, deeper than Tamamori’s, but he never questions her gender, even after getting to know more about her and in one route tries to help Meiko in the best way he can in hope she accepts herself and her love for a man. Do note, however, that in most scenes Tamamori and the rest of the cast will refer to Meiko when she’s not dressing as a girl as a “he” owing to the fact that they don’t know about her struggle and identity.

While I was liveblogging the game on Twitter, some of my followers mused about how the whole game felt like a fever dream, which is probably what Adelta was aiming for when making Hashihime, as the game doesn’t hesitate to make you question whether what you’re seeing is reality, a character’s lie or a hallucination. The “status quo” in this game is fickle and crumbles to dust over and over again, in every route, save for one thing: the fact that Tamamori is a bottom (even when offered to top!). Actually, even after having finished playing it, I can’t help but question what was supposed to be “true” or what was supposed to be Tamamori’s wild imagination. While I usually frown at works that make their ending “open” as a way to avoid answering questions, and while the true ending may throw off a lot of people, I found it after a few days of reflection to wrap up the game nicely, explaining a thing or two about the rest and the game but also leaving one huge and most likely deliberate “plot hole” that makes you question everything.

In the image department, Hashihime comes with a whopping 200 CGs, not including variations, that are ordered in the order they appear in the game’s gallery rather than being organized per character. For some reason, a few of them are missing from said gallery, including a rather important one involving the Madam. If I were to voice one complain though, it’s that most of the characters suffer from same face syndrome and sport a similar body, skintone and pointy chin, with their most distinctive trait being their eyes. When playing with someone else, this person said to me “why do they all look like brothers?”. Still, the game’s CGs shines in how expressive the characters can get, be it in their happy, sorrowful or insane moments, with a special mention going to the “psychedelic” scenes where Tamamori’s world goes colorful, surrealistic and loses all sense of logic.

I noticed a few hiccups during my playthrough. First there’s the fact that, for some reason, the buttons below the game’s textbox have a hard time being clicked, especially in fullscreen mode. Then there are typos that are scattered throughout the game, which isn’t surprising considering Hashihime’s length but becomes especially prevalent in Kawase’s route where I counted a handful of them. One line especially stands out, where clearly some spreadsheet cell didn’t quite get the English translation at all and instead shows an error (see above). That particular line wasn’t really important to the story, but still it stuck out like a sore thumb.

The best boy

My favourite character and route, like many who played before me, is without hesitation Professor.

Words just cannot describe the complete and utter madness and brilliance that resides within this character, which is used in the best way possible. His over-the-top personality, his funky inventions, his crazy maids, his open and unconditional adoration of Tamamori that brings out your sadistic side, his barely contained horniness and his endearing antics, his blushy faces and his storyline, topped with a incredible voice performance of Konno Seiichirou makes Professor’s character and route embody perfectly the themes and craziness of Hashihime in one big package (no dirty pun intended) and does to show just how much love Adelta poured into the game.

Actually, I couldn’t help but record some of his lines and listen to them over and over again to bask into his glory and his top-notch voice acting:

Long Story Short

Plot: 10/10
Prose: 9/10 (-1 for the typos)
Art: 9/10
Music: 8/10 (good, but not playlist-worthy)
Craziness: 15/10
Overall rating: 9.5/10

For the longest time, I said that Togainu no Chi was my first and best ever BL game experience. But after having played Hashihime, I’d say the two games are even, TnC more because of the nostalgia factor and the fact it was so formative for me more than anything.

Hashihime, with its plentiful and unique visuals provides a unique visual novel experience and takes you to many places in a rollercoaster fashion, provided that you embrace the insanity of it all and feel endeared by its deeply flawed, yet ultimately very human protagonist and overall cast.

Adelta has since released the Japanese superhero-themed BL game Uuultra C, which I really hope will be localized as well because it looks dope!

Useful Links

• Get the game on Mangagamer
• Get the game on Steam
• VNDB entry
• Adelta’s official website (Japanese-only)

After completing the game 100% and getting all the ending and 24(!) different death, here are my thought about this game.

Royal Alchemist is a BL/Otome visual novel created by Nifty Visuals, a small team based in Germany. They had a successful Kickstarter campaign back in 2018 and the full game released in February 2020, which is, well, much faster than the vast majority of project I’ve followed until now.

You play as Alexis Rozenkreuz, an alchemist and experienced magician sent in the kingdom of Eskia to teach magic to the 3 Princes –all of which you can romance or die trying.

The game takes inspiration from Long Live the Queen, another stat-raising sim where you need to take good care of your character’s stat if you want them to stay alive and get their happy end.

Characters

Alexis of House Rozenkreuz

A proud alchemist who can wield all 6 elements of magic and was tasked to teach the Princes. Far from being a blank slate, they are level-headed, resourceful and use their wits to gain the upper hand in many situations. They have their own secrets that they can’t tell anyone, not even the princes.

Prince Serin

The Crown Prince of Eskia, many see his polite and agreeable nature as a sign of weakness for a future King. Despite this, he knows how to inspire respect when the situation calls for it. He’s aware of the weight of his shoulders and it takes time to truly getting to know him. He wields Woods and Light magic.

Prince Nazir

The second Prince, Nazir has no interest in ruling and excels at flirting and escaping his duties. Unpopular with Nobles but loved by palace servants and commoners, his jovial attitude hides his insecurities about being the “lesser” of the 3 Princes. He has affinity with Fire and Wind magic. It takes a surprisingly longer time for Alexis to romance him compared to his brothers.

Prince Aurelius

The youngest Prince, Aurelius is the son of the King’s concubine. Despite this, he’s well-respected in the court for his fighting and leading abilities to the point some see him as a better potential King. That man is drama level 100 and should you do his route, be prepared for him to challenge Alexis a lot and in unexpected ways. He uses Water and Darkness magic.

The Lord Regent

A man of mellow temperament thrust into the position of Regent after the death of the King, he actually used to be a merchant along with his sister the late Queen. He has witnessed the many exploits of the King and the birth of the Kingdom of Eskia, but does not feel comfortable with his current role.

Raphael & Sala

The two servants assigned to attend to Alexis. Raphael is a courtier doubling as a butler who can teach Alexis about court etiquette, while Sala is a homunculus with a mysterious past who is close to the Princes who doubles as a maid and a beautician. Alexis wonders how Sala was made and who created her.

Harris

A butler who has served Aurelius since he was a child, he’s diligent and grumpy, with a hint of arrogance like his master. He’s very close to Raphael who he has known for many years and like him, he’s often seen chasing Nazir when the latter is trying to escape his duties. Harris can teach you Leadership.

…There are many more characters, but these will be the most recurring throughout all routes.

How it works: Stat-raising

Stat-raising is one of the core mechanics of the game. Every week you get to choose subjects to improve your stats on both for yourself (top 6 lectures on the right) and for the princes (bottom 6). Each slot you see above will yeld anywhere between 2 and 7 point for a given subject.

These stats will affect how Alexis and the Princes will react to various situations. Here are a couple examples:
– Succeeding a Charisma check can make Alexis able to assert themself in front of other characters and make them cooperate
– Failing a Fire check means Nazir may not be able to save you or himself from danger in certain situations.

Item crafting and missions

A few weeks into the game, you get the possibility to craft various items that will be useful for many things: complete missions, save your ass, help servants, nobles or other parties and earn their approval.

In order to craft them, at least one of the Prince must have the required stats. For example, in the pic below, Aurelius has enough Fire and Darkness skills to synthesize glass beads.

You can also sacrifice a week of teaching to complete a mission in which Alexis can help various characters. Should you succeed the mission, you can increase your weekly income, raise a Prince’s affection or your “approval” and get a cute little image for your trouble. Certain missions on the other end can kill you if you don’t have enough Fighting skills so be careful.

(You can rename the cat. I decided to call it “my butthole”.)

On Royal Alchemist’s difficulty

If you’re unfamiliar with stat-raising you may find Royal Alchemist a handful to deal with at first. It’s possible at the start of a game to pick the “easy” difficulty, but I found it not much different from the normal mode: Easy mode only substract 10 points from most stat checks, meaning Alexis will need, say, 40 Intelligence points to survive a week instead of the usual 50. This makes a bit of a difference early game, not so much later on where the requirements can reach up to 170 of a given stat. I think halving the stat requirements or just making it impossible to die would be better and actually make the game “Easy” as intended.

That said, if you’d like to avoid death here are some tips:

– Raise Alexis’ Intelligence early on. Fighting also helps but isn’t as important.
– Craft “explosive” items as soon as you can so Alexis can use it in a pinch.
– A high Intelligence alone can get Alexis out of most hairy situations.
– Make the Princes study their subject strengths, they’ll need them.

Stat-raising aficionados may enjoy the challenge the game provides, although I admit I’m not that well-versed in that area. If the stat-raising instead scares you, following my advices cited above should keep you out of trouble and let you enjoy the story!

That’s great and all, but what about the writing?

Have you ever read a piece of fiction, found its story and characters intriguing yet at the same time thinking to yourself “this sentence could have been better worded”? Making a story compelling is one thing, finding the right words to make your words impactful for the reader is another, and while I find VNs succeeding the former somewhat consistently, the latter is a feat very few have achieved as far as I’ve seen.

I was quite pleasantly surprised to find that Royal Alchemist succeeded in both: the main intrigue and murder/mystery cases kept me (and Alexis) on my toes until the very end, the Princes and side characters were colorful (I especially liked the butler Harris) and each route had its own share of drama, romance and murder. All wrapped in a prose I found very pleasant to read.

Perhaps RA having 4 writers and 2 editors helped: each route was written by a different writer the game director carefully hand-picked, with another person writing the missions. One of the writers is Windchime, who is currently working their own Otome/Yuri game.

Art and Music

My biggest complain about the art is that there is not enough of it. The handful CGs (8-10 without variations) we get for each Prince are pleasant for the eyes but I feel that is not a whole lot considering the length of the game. The non-static sprites, visual effects and chibi illustrations fill that hole a but but cannot replace good old CGs.

Most of the backgrounds and all of the music tracks were royalty-free assets that felt fitting enough but not particularly noteworthy. That plus the scarce CGs lead me to believe that a few sacrifices were made in order for RA to be 1°) financially viable -making a game is expensive- and 2°) delivered on time. One year and a half which is much less than the KS projects I’ve been waiting for 4 or more years.

Final Thoughts

Intriguing plot and cast wrapped in an excellent prose are what makes Royal Alchemist shine, and shine it does! It’s the kind of story you’d enjoy for the plot alone although the relationship, romantic or not, have its strong and sweet moments as well.

A very good experience overall and I hope more people give it a chance and tell the authors what they think.

Relevant links

– Get the game on itch.io
– Get the game on Steam
– Nifty Visual’s Twitter
– Discord server
– Patreon

They recently announced a short Halloween-themed game set to come out around November 2020 if you’re interested.

Play time: around 1 hour
Price: $1 USD
Where to get: itch.io
Age rating: 18+ (one skippable sex scene)

Supercircuit is a one-person-team who has been making queer, science-fiction visual novels since 2014.

Chronomuxed was a submission for the Yaoi Game Jam 2019, an annual game jam where gave devs are given 2 months to create a BL game from scratch. It’s one of the very few BL space operas out there that tells you the story of Jaro, a researcher in a space station who wants to develop a method of travel that involves time-traveling. He meets Yxil, a space elf Thealexian who is strangely keen and interested in Jaro’s researches. It’s also one of the very few BLVNs available in English that feature a battle system.

One of the main sources of entertainment in this game, at least for me, was watching the love interest Yxil time travel and find increasingly ridiculous ways to get close to Jaro and save him from the disasters he’s bringing to the poor researcher. Jaro being horny and finding Yxil cute helps the making the “getting close to Jaro” a load easier.

If I were to suggest a few improvements, it would be making the inventory a little easier to read and the battle conversations not timed–they are easily missable and cannot be rollbacked like the rest of the dialogue. That said, I’m very much aware that when you’re only one person to make a game within 2 months, some places end-up more polished than others, and these are minor nitpicks.

All in all, Chronomuxed is a game that tries to experiment a few things–and mostly succeeds– while offering you a nice amount of content (it was made in 2 months!), a story with fun and cute dialogues and an ending I actually found satisfactory. If you like sci-fi, have 1 dollar to spare and don’t mind playing a game jam title, I would gladly recommend Chronomuxed to you.

If you want to know more about the creator you can follow them on twitter.

Brassica – A Marry Tales is a short visual novel in five acts created by Boys Laugh +, a duo of two queer folks from Germany who aim to make inclusive and LGBT+ themed games. Currently, only the first act and part of the second acts are available, but purchasing the game on itchio grants you access to all of them once they are out.

Here’s the official game summary:

An alternate summary could be: Local Lesbian Princess Bamboozles Three Neighbouring Princes Into Bonding With Each Other Through Hardship — You Won’t Believe What Happens Next!, for the mission the princess gives the three prince and their following misadventures appears to be a well-calculated plan.

Characters

Prince Saffron of Theotherkingdom

Brassica’s protagonist. A young, green prince who was tasked by his parents to go on a journey to meet Princess Sappho and marry her.

He was raised as a vegetarian and doesn’t like violence, and has little real-life skills. However, you could say he’s doing his best, and you get to help him a bit throughout his quest.

Prince Ode of Barah

A hot-blooded prince from the kingdom of Bara Barah, Ode fell in love with Princess Sappho ever since he saw her in a ball during the previous winter and would be more than happy to marry her.

He can understand animals and thus is reluctant to hurt or kill them. His best friend is a dog named Friedrich.

Prince Hans of Otome Auxtome

Hans is a casanova who is used to short term relationships and sees his marriage with Princess Sappho as an end to his previously carefree lifestyle.

He can use magic, but his magic is not very strong, and using it temporarily deprives him of his senses. Despite his long and pointy ears, he is not an elf.

Princess Sappho of Radix

Her official name is Seraphina, but she prefers to be referred to as Sappho. In order to choose who will marry her, she sends them on a dangerous quest up the mountains to fetch her the Lilium Brassica, a magical flower.

If her name wasn’t eloquent enough, she’s actually in love with her retainer, Cithara.

Cithara

Princess Sappho’s most loyal servant, Cithara is a serious and competent woman who is tasked with executing Princess Sappho’s plans and keeping watch of the princes.

She is also in love with Princess Sappho.

Writing and Characterization

Brassica reads like a lighthearted fairytale play. The game textbox is small, making the sentences and character dialogues relatively brief without adding too many frills to the story. Sometimes, the story narrator breaks the fourth wall addresses you directly, mostly between two acts.

Despite the brevity of the narration, and from the rather short ~1 hour of play the first act-and-a-half provides, I find the characters to be nicely fleshed out. Despite their bickering and being “rivals”, Hand and Ode try to listen to the little Saffron has to say, and while the three princes are fooled easily, they slowly try to cooperate in order to make it work and survive their dangerous journey. Far from being overshadowed by her wannabe fiancees, Princess Sappho’s dialogues and her overseeing their journey makes her as interesting, if perhaps not more than the prince.

I wish Saffron had more spontaneous lines though. Hopefully, he gets more fleshed out in the later acts.

Art direction

I am quite fond of Brassica’s simple chara design, vibrant colors and lineless artstyle, which just fits well with its fairy tale setting.

The assumed “theatre” look, with curtains rising and falling between each acts, the map on the left and the date on the right to keep track of where the princes are, adds to Brassica’s creativity as much as it seems to limits it. There is no CG, and we can’t see the character closer than how their sprite appears inside the scene area. Perhaps making more varied character sprites and poses beyond the few variations in clothing and facial expressions could help. So far, only the scenery seems to really change from one scene to another, which provides a nice-looking, though not quite filling consolation.

Similarly, the game features no soundtrack nor sound at all besides some bird chirpings. While I can imagine Brassica was made with minimal budget, I believe finding some fitting music to go with the game’s mood would assist further in the story immersion. How about some public domain tunes? Heck, Vivaldi’s Printemps would fit Brassica perfectly!

A Few Hiccups

While Brassica doesn’t show any major bug, I’d like to point out a few hiccups that came up in my playthought:

• Weird things happen when skipping text: some characters sprites freeze when turning around, making them look like some flattened Paper Mario models. Hans especially seems victim of this.
• Loading a save you made at the end of an act takes me to the enforced save menu of said act, which is quite confusing and made me think the game didn’t want to load at first. When that happens, only clicking “Return” makes the game resume where you left off.
• Some are okay with the text blips, some find it infuriating. Turning down the game sound did nothing, the only solution is clicking “mute all” in the Preferences menu. Bug?

While they don’t prevent you from enjoying the story, I hope these will be fixed in later builds, as they could turn some less seasoned Renpy users away from Brassica, which would be a shame.

Conclusion

So far, my impressions of Brassica – A Marry Tale is that of a fairy tale with a few unexpected twists, complete with a colourful cast and vibrant graphics that, although far from perfect, proves to be a light but refreshing read. I do look forward to read the rest of the story and the three princes’ adventures, and have good hope Boys Laugh + will actually complete it.

I am a bit wary of episodic games, as there is no guarantee the creator will complete the story but Boys Laugh + made it far and only one purchase will be necessary to get the 5 acts, which get added with game updates rather as separate games.

Relevant links:

• Purchase Brassica – A Marry Tale
• Boys Laugh + official website
• Boys Laugh + Twitter

At the beginning of November, Eldet’s development blog released an updated version of Eldet’s demo, two years after the initial one that was launched for the project’s Kickstarter. This update brought quite a lot of neat changes, which I will talk about in a little while.

Eldet is a medieval fantasy, LGBT+ visual novel by Marccus Ehren, in which you play as Kunal, a young man who, after years of studying magic and yet not having awakened any magical ability, decides to work with a mysterious duo of “tomb raiders” who require a mage for their explorations. Along the way, Kunal meets a variety of characters, some of which he can befriend or romance.

Characters

Kunal

Eldet’s player character. A man in his early-20′s from a family of famous mages who studied magic for 16 years, yet was never able to actually use magic. Kunal’s personality will be shaped by your choices throughout the game.

Since demo V2, you can customize Kunal’s hair, body, and pronouns, which impact every CG or sprite he/they appear in.

Tariq

Tariq is the man who offered Kunal to work as a mage for his tomb explorations. He is a cunning, cultivated man who has worked for years with his sister into this whole tomb raiding business. Tariq appears friendly and welcoming at first, but he seems to be hiding something, and will act cold should Kunal press the issue.

Faaron

A gigantic Elven mercenary hired to keep the group safe during their journey. He never says a word throughout the demo (all of his lines are “…”), yet seems quick to concern himself over Kunal’s well-being. He’s kind of like a big, pointy-eared teddy bear.

Aadita

A close friend of Kunal’s and studies in the same college as him. She expresses deep concern over Kunal’s safety in his imminent journey, yet still respects his decision, lends him her mage stone, and helps him teleport to southern Andalusia so he meets Tariq.

Kahina

Tariq’s sister and just as well-versed in exploring tombs as he is. Unlike him, she’s blunt and straight-to-the-point, and doesn’t seem very enchanted by Kunal’s recent recruitment. Kahina seems to have her own secrets and motivations, separate from her brothers’.

Akwasi

We don’t know much about Akwasi, aside from the fact that he’s Tariq’s brother and that Tariq hates his guts. He seems intrigued by Kunal, and apparently carries a mage stone like him– despite not being a mage himself.

Writing and characterization

As you can see, Eldet features quite a diverse cast, and that’s just the beginning. Not only there will be characters from various races and ethnicities but Kunal will be able to meet and possibly romance nonbinary characters as well.

Now, one major complaint I hear about inclusive games is how some creators seem to content themselves with making their cast diverse, but yet forget to work towards making the plot actually intriguing and making said characters grow throughout the story. While I can’t say much from a demo about the latter, I was pleasantly surprised by how colorful, and yet three-dimensional each introduced character in the Eldet demo was.

Perhaps the most interesting character in this demo is Tariq, who display two dramatically different sides of himself You just can’t figure the man out with just one set of choices, and I found myself going back to previous saves to see how he would respond to Kunal’s different dialogue choices. Tariq blows hot and cold with Kunal, warmly welcoming him into his group one moment and in the next leaving him to face an incoming scary situation, confusing him greatly.

Faaron, on the other hand, is quite fun to interact with. He doesn’t say anything, and he doesn’t seem fluent in Kunal and Tariq’ language, which leads to some awkward, yet amusing interactions. Yet you can say his various actions and attempts at helping Kunal speak for him and hint at a “gentle giant” personality.

Backgrounds!

With that said, I’d like to point out how gorgeous Eldet’s backgrounds are, some of which are animated:

The animations look simple, but they further add to the immersion into Eldet’s universe. A nice bonus to already gorgeous hand-drawn backgrounds.

That, plus everything I said earlier, plus the zillion different sprites each character has depending on the scene and clothes they wear, plus the fact that Marccus has been working on Eldeton his own since the beginning –writing, illustrating and composing each soundtrack– shows just how much work and love was poured into this project.

That level of dedication is quite humbling, but at the same time, a little terrifying.

In conclusion…

I’m not going to lie, this is the most beautiful VN I’ve played all year, and this is only the demo. Eldet not only aims to be inclusive but also feature a variety of complex, charismatic characters and an engaging story with a solid prose that is a pleasure to read. We haven’t met half of the cast but all the introduced characters were interesting in their own ways, and I look forward to reading Kunal’s exciting people-meeting and tomb-raiding adventures.

On top of the gargantuan workload that illustrating and programming the game implies, my major concern for the full game will be the writing, which I hope, will stay consistent. I’m weak for good writing, more than good art.

If you haven’t backed Eldet’s Kickstarter, you can still support Marccus on Patreon if you like. The available reward tiers are much cheaper than they should be, but even $1 would be appreciated.

And that closes this review. Thanks for reading! :D

Relevant links:

• Eldet demo
  
• Marccus  patreon
• rnarccus  tumblr
  
• Eldet development blog
• Eldet Kickstarter